"Rip Van Winkle" is a story within a story. Irving plays himself in the story, telling us about a story he found, a story of a man named Rip Van Winkle.
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Rip is a guy living before the Revolutionary War. He lives in New York, and his wife nags him constantly. He plays Santa Claus and gives toys to the kids in the neighborhood. All the kids love him to death, and may have even considered him to be excelsis. His wife, Dame, not so much; Rip is lazy. Irving describes Rip as a hen-pecked husband numerous times throughout the story. Rip tries to escape from his wife for a while, and heads up to the mountains. There he meets a Dutch man (Rip is also Dutch) who leads him to a mysterious amphitheater. There Rip finds odd looking men with long beards. Each man had a different colored beard, they were all playing Nine Pins, and no one talked. Rip ponders why they would be playing a recreational game while looking so stern and not speaking a word. As far as their speech went, it was the farthest from cacophony he had ever heard. Rip keeps his thoughts to himself, drinks some liquor, and falls asleep. He wakes up the next day very confused. His beard grew a foot long over one night! Rip couldn't find his dog, Wolf, and his gun had rusted. He went into town and couldn't find anyone that he knew. After some digging around, he found out that his wife had died, and so had many other people he knew. Rip found out that some kind of war had taken place (Over night?) and that he shouldn't proclaim himself a royal subject of King George, because he received immediate hatred. The war that had taken place was the American Revolutionary War. A portrait of George Washington (Trivia: Washington Irving was named after George Washington) was hanging on the town inn, instead of King George III that used to be there. Rip finds a man named Rip Van Winkle, and is perplexed. The Rip he found was actually his son, as an adult! Rip had been asleep not for one night, but for twenty years! Rip Van Winkle hears rumors that the Dutch man he met in the mountains was actually not a man at all. He was a ghost. Someone in the town recognized Rip Van Winkle from twenty years ago. Rip went to live with his daughter who was now an adult, and they lived happily ever after.
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Irving tells us after the preceding story that he believes it to be true. Now, that would take a lot of faith!
"Rip Van Winkle" is definitely worth reading. Believe me, you'll learn a lot of new words!
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| Life size statue of Rip Van Winkle, close to Washington Irving's house |
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